"That is happiness; to be disolved into something complete and great. When it comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep." - Willa Cather

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Wednesday, 7 May 2008

Feeling weak

On Monday, I returned to the oatmeal diet (see Postpartum Diet & Fitness post). And boy does it work. Yesterday after my run I weighed 51.1 kg or 112.6 lbs. I am almost 8 lbs less than my pre-pregnancy weight. Of course I am thrilled, but feel sore everywhere. I thought it was just my legs from the race, but then I went swimming today and my left arm felt sore and lame. Another sign that I am not getting a well-balanced diet is I am getting sores in my mouth. Add to that the continuous bleeding I'm having from the IUD and you'll understand why I'm not myself.

We have a 50k relay coming up on Saturday. We will be passing of The Bois off as a baton (reverse baton). I am worried though about how weak and sore I feel, so I am going to eat a big proteinous dinner tonight and start adding textured vegetable protein (TVP) to my oatmeal.

Obviously some other things are missing from this crash diet, so I will need to modify. I'll let you know what I come up with.

Just got back from a bike ride with The Bois. I'm trying to return to a car-free life. Now that the weather is nice, it should be easier. Last year I went 6 months without filling my car with gas (before I met SR) and I'd love to be able to do that again. Ideally, I'd like to live completely off the grid, but that would not be easy, especially when it comes to convincing the step kids. I do contemplate what the world will be like in a few short years when we can't travel by car, when our resources have run out. Of course we talk about alternative energy, but the world is going to change dramatically as fuel runs out.

I've been slowly weaning myself from buying new things (craigslist makes this much easier), but there are certain things it's hard to go without buying new (running shoes for example).

In other news, The Bois has begun to laugh like a little sheep.

He is being held here by a friend who we call Magma.

(You're probably thinking I bought his outfit new, but I haven't bought any new clothes for him... again, craigslist is great!).

Finally, the blog has become even less anonymous. Today I was sitting in an auditorium at the hospital before SR gave a Grand Rounds presentation and one of the residents shouted to me "SLG, my wife loves your blog! She was so upset when you made it private!" I got incredulous and intrigued looks from the many members of the audience, some of whom may be reading this right now.

Oh, I hope you feel better soon! It sucks to be unwell and not feel strong as an athlete.

I wonder if the continuous IUD bleeding is making you anemic? A rambling thought...

I went through a weird phase when my blog went from mostly anonymous to not at all anonymous a few years ago; it was a little awkward for me. Also, I know that several of my coworkers/local acquaintances/etceteras read my blog but don't tell me they read my blog. That's also a little weird. Overall, though, I think it's flattering that people are interested in our atheltic/adventuring pursuits.

Meghan & Angela, Great point about anemia. I actually am about 95% sure I AM anemic. I started taking iron supplements (and B12 just for good measure) before I got the IUD but without eating any meat but fish it is HARD to not get anemic when you have blood loss. Luckily the blood loss has lessened quite a bit the last few days.

Thank you for writing so honestly in your blog. I very much enjoy reading it. I am almost 33 weeks pregnant and have been vigorously exercising my whole pregnancy (running/elliptical). People make a lot of remarks to me about this, and about my apparent lack of weight gain during my pregnancy. I do not understand the fervor surrounding this topic! I can't think of anything else more personal, and that should be more off limits to stranger comments.

My questions for you- did you consistently measure small (in terms of fundal height) throughout your pregnancy? Were your medical professionals more concerned about your weight gain during your third trimester? And one more if I may: Did your body ever give you "slow down" signs and if so, what were they and did you listen to them?

I know you're busy and probably don't have a lot of time to humor the questions of internet strangers, so at the very least I just wanted you to know you have an interested reader.

SLG, at least you are ensuring you are um, err, regular. LOL! Are you striving for at least 5 fruits and veggies every day? If I saw you in public, I would come barreling up to you and hug you. Hee, heeee. You're a celebrity now, Girl.

Hi Sealegsgirl, I somehow came across your blog online, and I absolutely love it. I am 30 weeks pregnant, plan to start medical school in the fall, and I have some questions for you about weight, exercise, and pregnancy. Your posts are amazing and sooo inspirational. Do you have an email address or something? some way I can get in contact with you other than posting a comment on your post? My email address is doc2b1030@gmail.com....Id really appreciate it!! thanks!!

I've had past troubles with anemia, too, so I can empathize. It's sometimes challenging being a vegetarian female who runs a lot. But, if you're already supplementing, what is next? I seem to recall that once I used liquid iron (Not a technical term, I don't think?), I stopped having issues.

I came back to ask a sort-of related question. I recall a conversation with a doctor about this years ago in which he said runners are more prone to anemia because their blood often has a higher ratio of plasma to everything else than other people's blood. He said this was the body's response to the vigorous pounding/bouncing that is running, an effort to "pad" the key blood cells. Thus, runners will have a lower red blood cell to everything else ratio, creating an anemic state. I'm curious about this, Sea Legs, if you have knowledge.

please please please be sure that you are eating enough to keep up your milk supply too, if you are still bf'ing. everyone's body is different and my milk supply was never much; it also went away very quickly when I didn't want it to :( we went away for a weekend and i pumped regularly the whole time, but i had nothing by the time I got back to baby :( it was really sad for me, but maybe it won't be the same for you!

I started taking Iron some 2 months ago and do feel the difference. I cut out a lot of meat products (though didn't become vegetarian per se, just more aware of healthy choices) at that time (and this is when I lost quite some weight by the way, so I guess I was overdoing on pork), and did feel dragging for a bit, but then it normalized and I am fine now. I don't remember last time I had any tests done, but 2 years ago I was anemic - and between running lots and having period every 2.5-3 weeks it caused red blood cells not fully recovered. I also have hypothyroidism (at sub-level by hormonal change, by stage 3 by ultrasound and visual), so my tiredness can be explained there4, as well as easy weight gain. I heard lately a lot of female athletes have thyroid dysfunction that come with time, although mine started long time ago and just escalated more with exercise. However, I am not bad enough to take any treatment for it yet, what is good.

I remember when my blog was read by only a few close friends, but then it spread...and felt so weird, I was thinking about quitting many times! I have people coming to me at the races and saying they read it - in masses! I am not surprised anymore, it linked to so many running/ultra websites...and I am smitten by all the support, so I guess it's a good thing. I bet some think of me negative too, with all my pouring my heart out and not hiding anything that happens, but I simply can't write one thing and not the other. Hold your head high. If you are at peace with yourself and those you love dearly - you have nothing to be ashamed of.

I hope you have fun at the relay and get a quick recovery to your usual perky state.

Hi all. As "sealegs'" husband and a future hematologist I felt like I should comment on the anemia talk.

First of all, most young, menstruating women are low on iron. Many are overtly anemic. I say just take some iron.

Second, a little anemia is expected in athletes. As Meghan said, the blood volume expands more than the red blood cell mass. So even though athletes have more hemoglobin and red blood cells than "normal" people, the tests indicate anemia.

Honestly, it would be pretty rare for someone to have anemia from other things. I have heard talk about "runner's colitis", ie. low-grade blood loss from the colon when training hard. I don't know if that is real or not but, in any case, it would manifest as iron-deficiency anemia.

I did see one young woman who almost died from Vitamin B12 deficiency (she couldn't absorb it) but that's obvisouly very rare.

I am overwhelmed by the response to my blog! I figured it would remain anonymous and unread for its entire existence. Anyway, I'll keep writing as always and I'll try to answer your questions.

I do have an email address for the blog now. It's sealegsgirlblog@gmail.com.

I wanted to answer Christy's question about my measurements during pregnancy:

I did consistenty measure small. At 33 weeks I dropped to more than 2cm too small I had to get an ultrasound. Everything was fine, however, and The Bois was about 30th to 40th percentile for size. From the research I have done, weight gain of no less than .27 kg/week or about 0.5 lbs per week is recommended for normal weight women and is especially important to adhere to this weight gain in the second trimester. I gained less than this and everything turned out fine (he was 6lbs 1oz). I do recommend what has been found in the research, but I will add that I suspect that the numbers are skewed because some women will gain less BECAUSE their babies aren't growing well, then their babies are born unhealthy because the babies had growth problems to begin with. Do you follow that? So if you're feeling healthy and strong and your doctor/midwife finds no concerns, gain what feels right to you.

Hello from Rude Skov

Photo by Stine Sophie Winckel

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My name is Tracy. I am a physician scientist from the USA, living with my husband and two young boys in Denmark. I work as a post-doc fellow at Næstved Hospital. I have a scientific interest in vision loss, vision loss during exercise, exercise, running during pregnancy, MAF training as well as nutrition and health for athletes. I also have a love for music, physics, statistics, cycling, yoga, cross-country skiing, bla bla bal.

I was a member of Team USA at the IAU World Championships in Ultra Trail Running in 2013 in Wales. I am now training to run with Team Denmark at the IAU World Championships in Annency, France in May 2015.